Correction: Bloom (2024). Jewish “Ghosts”: Judit Hersko and Susan Hiller and the Feminist Intersectional Art of Post-Holocaust Memory. Arts 13: 50

Due to a production error during processing, a number of mistakes appear in the original publication.

Figure Legend

In the original publication (Bloom 2024), there was a mistake in the legend for “Figure 7”. The correct legend appears below:

Figure 7. Susan Hiller, The J Street Project, 2002–2005. A silent procession of thoroughfares that all have the street signs “Judenstrasse” or “Judenwig” that mark them hung in a seven-foot grid. Monumental wall-based installation with 303 archival color inkjet photographs mounted on Kapaline, oak frames. Pigment printed in an almost painterly fashion on watercolor paper and identically sized and framed. Courtesy of Timothy Tayler Gallery, London.

Error in Figure

In the original publication (Bloom 2024), there was a mistake in “Figure 5” as published. “Figure 5 is incorrect”. The corrected “Figure 5” appears below:

Figure 5. Judit Hersko, Clione Antarctica—Sea Angel, photograph, 2009. The microscopic gelatinous sea snail in Antarctica is threatened with extinction from climate breakdown. Courtesy of the artist.

Figure 5. Judit Hersko, Clione Antarctica—Sea Angel, photograph, 2009. The microscopic gelatinous sea snail in Antarctica is threatened with extinction from climate breakdown. Courtesy of the artist.

Text Correction

There were some errors in the original publication (Bloom 2024); in the Abstract, “to prompt contemplation of the actions imperative to survival of both humans and non-humans in the future.” is missing.

A correction has been made to the “Abstract”:

This article delves into the underexplored intersection of Jewish identities and feminist art. It critically examines artworks by Judit Hersko and Susan Hiller, aligning with evolving identity constructs in contemporary aesthetics. Concepts like “postmemory” link second-generation Jewish artists to past experiences and unveil the erasure of Jewish women’s memory of Jewish genocide. Analyzing Hersko and Hiller’s diverse works, from landscape photography and sculpture to performance art, it underscores their shared pursuit: illuminating lingering “ghosts” of the Holocaust in modern landscapes. Susan Hiller’s The J Street Project represents an ongoing exploration of loss and trauma beyond the Holocaust in Germany, using archives as a dynamic, evolving phenomenon. Judit Hersko’s art calls for bearing witness to a potential climate catastrophe in Antarctica to prompt contemplation of the actions imperative to survival of both humans and non-humans in the future. The article culminates in the exploration of “The Memorial” (2017), an art project by the activist collective Center for Political Beauty that focuses on the resurgence of overt anti-Semitism in Germany. In essence, Hiller and Hersko confront erasures in history and nature, emphasizing justice and repair. Their art, intertwined with a project addressing contemporary anti-Semitism, serves as a testament to the enduring power of feminist art, reflecting, mourning, and transforming a world marked by historical traumas and war.

A correction has been made to the “Introduction”, “Paragraph 6”:

Hersko’s artwork From the Pages of the Unknown Explorer (2008–2012), addressing the climate crisis, is inflected by the Holocaust as a touchstone, but extends beyond it to include the trauma of witnessing the destruction of non-human life forms in Antarctica. Her work responds to our contemporary climate emergency, a time when our species’ survival hangs in the balance. Her work departs from the distant sublime aesthetics of Romantic art, which is rooted in European Universalism and its pursuit of nature’s conquest. She offers a critical feminist perspective in Antarctica and its landscape tradition to reinterpret the absences in the history of women in Antarctic exploration and science, using fictional approaches that create alternative histories. She rewrites themes of gender, science, exploration, and Jewishness in the time of World War II to rethink our understanding of Antarctica and our interconnected dependence on the non-human world in the context of the present climate crisis. Hersko’s landscapes and oceanscapes include images from her own family album, pre-war photographs of family members who are Holocaust camp survivors, and objects from those who were victims. Drawing inspiration from Walter Benjamin’s allegorical framework from The Arcades Project, her art grapples with the experience of loss and trauma beyond the Holocaust, employing archives, film, sculpture, and photo montage to reimagine history and performance art.

A correction has been made to “Section 5”, “Paragraphs 5 and 6 (the last two)”:

In essence, Susan Hiller and Judit Hersko engage with memory and loss through their art, confronting the erasures in history and the disappearances of nature that have profound implications for both individuals and societies. They challenge viewers to acknowledge these absences and witness the unsettling intersections of traumatic history and, in the case of Hersko, to prompt us to not only contemplate but to act. Through Hersko’s distinct yet interconnected practices, she extends an invitation to delve into the complexities of post-Holocaust memory and the urgent need to address the emergency of climate breakdown. Both artists remind us that the work of memory and the pursuit of justice require ongoing dedication, creativity, and a commitment to mending the fabric of our collective past, present, and future.

In a world in which historical traumas persist and ecological challenges are multiplying, the contemporary art of post-Holocaust memory crafted by Hiller and Hersko offers a poignant testament to the enduring power of feminist intersectional art as a vehicle for reflection, mourning, transformation, and action.

Notes Correction

There was an error in the original publication (Bloom 2024) in Note 1.

A correction has been made to “Note 1”:

Earlier versions of the section on Judit Hersko have been previously published in my 2022 book and other articles, but this version has been significantly revised to be integrated into this article’s very different argument on feminist intersectional art of post-Holocaust memory. The article is an expanded version of a paper that I gave in 2019 for the conference “New Perspectives on Jewish Feminist Art in the United States” at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, organized by David Sperber. My writing on Judit Hersko first appeared in “Antarctica: Feminist Art Practices and Disappearing Polar Landscapes”, in Bloom (2017); as Bloom (2020), and in my 2022 book: (Bloom 2022).

This correction was approved by the Academic Editor. The original publication has also been updated.